The Porsche 963 has further consolidated its status as the most successful race car under LMDh regulations. The third consecutive victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona and another one-two in the 12 Hours of Sebring are proof of this. As a result, the sports car manufacturer, works drivers Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich as well as the Porsche Penske Motorsport squad lead all standings in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The key to success: the work of the developers in Weissach, who are consistently optimising the Porsche 963 after winning the title in 2024 and 2025.

Ahead of the start of the first sprint race of the IMSA season on the streets of Long Beach (18 April), the Porsche Penske Motorsport works team can once again boast an unblemished record: Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG leads all IMSA classifications. This means that Porsche can once again set its sights on defending its title. Until then, there are still seven more races to be completed, with very different characters and time spans of 100 minutes to ten hours.

The basis for the successes is the optimally coordinated work of the Porsche Penske Motorsport team, strong performances by the works drivers in the cockpits, sophisticated race strategies and, last but not least, the hybrid prototype itself. Porsche has consistently improved the 963 since its rollout in January 2022 in Weissach to this day, although the participating manufacturers in the American IMSA series – as well as in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) – are only allowed to use five so-called development jokers in the current homologation phase until the end of 2027.

Development to the physical limits

"Porsche has always used motorsport to test technologies and redefine boundaries. It is precisely this approach that has made the Porsche 963 what it is today," explains Urs Kuratle, Vice President Factory Motorsport LMDh. The further development of the hybrid prototype took place in three steps. In the winter of 2023, Porsche implemented important durability improvements for the following year. For 2025, optimizations followed, among other things, to the chassis and at the start of this season, aerodynamic developments were the focus of the team from Weissach.

"We agreed on a development roadmap at a very early stage and implemented it consistently and very successfully," explains Stefan Moser, Technical Director in Porsche's LMDh project. The success proves the engineer and his team right in Weissach: in 2024, the Porsche 963 won all titles in the IMSA championship, the sports car manufacturer repeated the triumph across the board the next season, and Porsche Penske Motorsport has started the current year in the same way as twelve months earlier: with overall victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona and a one-two result at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

In view of the limited development jokers, the vehicle updates had to be conscientiously planned and carefully chosen. "Under these conditions, we always look at where we have the greatest potential for improvement," explains Urs Kuratle, adding: "The drivers play an important role in this. With their relentless feedback, they reveal this potential. We then have to counteract this in the best possible way with technical developments." There is a consensus among the Porsche works drivers: the 963 has improved noticeably from year to year.

Drivers praise improved 963

"If I were to do a comparison drive with the 963 from 2023 and the race car from today, they would feel like two completely different vehicles," explains Matt Campbell, reigning IMSA champion. "The progress has been really huge since the car's debut: first in terms of reliability, then in the area of kinematics and more recently in aerodynamics. In addition, there are optimizations to the many control systems, which have a direct effect on braking behavior, traction and power management of the drive, among other things."

"We felt the progress, especially on the way to victory at Sebring," reports works driver colleague Julien Andlauer, who won the first two races of the season at the wheel of the number 7 car. "The drivability has become much more pleasant, we use the tyres better and the Porsche is much more predictable in fast passages and on bumps. That should benefit us later in the year, for example at Watkins Glen and at Road Atlanta."

New ideas in Weissach: There's even more to the 963

While the team and drivers are celebrating great successes in the North American championship, the development engineers in Weissach are not letting up. "Leaning back and resting is not our style," laughs Stefan Moser. "We are not guided by results, but cultivate the pure engineering view. We are driven by the desire to push the physical limits. Accordingly, there is still potential. It's like the 911, which Porsche has been improving for over 60 years. There's more to the 963 too."

"We still have a development joker up our sleeves," says Urs Kuratle happily. "We will think carefully about how we can use him as profitably as possible for the 2027 season. Our team in Weissach already has some ideas for this..."

Standing still is a step backwards: According to this motto, the developers in Weissach will continue to work on improvements for the Porsche 963 in the best "#Raceborn" manner – because the hybrid prototype of the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer is to remain the measure of all things.